Top 20 Things That You Need To Know About Living In Dallas
Updated: Jul 17
Are you new to Dallas? Here are the top 20 things you need to know about living in Dallas!
1. Restaurants: Dallas has one of the best restaurant scenes in the country, and therefore the world! Here’s some “must have” spots broken down by price:
$: Mia’s (Tex-Mex), Lucky’s Hot Chicken (Southern), Recipe Oak Cliff (Vegan), Wabi House (Ramen)
$$: The Henry (American), Las Palmas (Tex-Mex), Pecan Lodge (BBQ), Yardbird (Southern/Brunch), Cane Rosso (Pizza/Italian)
$$$: Al Biernat’s (Steakhouse), Fachini (Italian), Javier’s (Tex-Mex), Tei-An (Japanese/Sushi)
2. Bar Scene: The Bar Scene in Dallas is bountiful, because let’s be honest: eating and drinking is the number one thing to do in Dallas, here’s some notable bars in Dallas by category:
The Biggest: Happiest Hour, The Rustic, Katy Trail Ice House
Breweries: Brain Dead Brewery, Peticolas Brewery, Manhattan Beer Project Co.
Hole in the Wall: Whippersnapper, Louie’s, Time Out Tavern
3. Notable Suburbs & Fort Worth
West Plano/Frisco - Full of walkable areas like Legacy West, Shops at Legacy, and Frisco Crossing
Las Colinas - Popular area for young professionals with lake views and a great running trail
Lakewood - eclectic area with character around White Rock Lake, great for all outdoor activities around Dallas
Addison - “Restaurant Row”, Addison is home to one of the highest concentrations of restaurants in DFW
Ft. Worth - Ft. Worth is becoming one of the funnest areas in DFW. Not so crowded but still gives you the feel of a city. Their Museums are not to be slept on either.
4. Traffic: The Metroplex does a great job with traffic considering the nearly 8 million people who live here. It’s nice and spread out but know that 75, the Dallas North Tollway, 30, 35, and 635 are going to be heavily congested from 7-10 am and 4:00-6:30 pm.
5. How to Meet Friends:
Meetups based on Hobby - Meetups are awesome because you choose based on what you’re interested in and get to meetup with groups of folks in DFW interested in the same thing!
Networking Groups - There are close to 8 million people in DFW and let’s face it: it’s not because of the mountains or the beach. DFW is clearly one of the best places to work in the nation, and there are several thriving groups. Check out the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce’s YP group as a good starting point here.
6. Best Coffee Shops: Let’s be honest, the highest concentration of awesome coffee shops is in Bishop Arts, here’s a few:
Wayward Coffee Shop
La Reunion
Wild Detectives (great bookstore too!)
Tribal All Day Cafe
La Reunion
White Rhino
For those looking outside of Bishop Arts:
Fiction Coffee (Old East Dallas)
Ascension Coffee (Design District & Victory Park)
Stupid Good Coffee (Downtown)
Merit Coffee Co. (Deep Ellum)
7. Things to do Outside
Hit an apartment pool
Golf
Frisbee Golf
Hiking/Biking
Kayaking
Arboretum
Hit a Patio!
8. Big 4 of Dallas Sports Teams
Cowboys
Rangers
Stars
Mavericks
9. Live Music
Big Venues: Dos Equis Pavilion, Toyota Music Factory, Verizon Theatre, American Airlines, Bomb Factory
Mid-Size/Small Venues: Trees, Club DaDa, It’ll Do, The Kessler Theater, Granada Theater, the Majestic
10. Theater
AT&T Performing Arts Center, Kalita Humphreys Theater, Moody Performance Art Center, Dallas Theater
11. School Districts - There are 37 school districts in the DFW area. Looking for the best school district in DFW for your kids? Our Realtors® can plug you in with the best resources available to make the best decision for your family
12. Museums
Dallas Museum of Art
Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Nasher Sculpture Museum
The Modern in Ft. Worth
George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
Rainbow Vomit
Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth
13. Hiking/Biking Trails
The Katy Trail
White Rock Lake Trail
Oak Cliff Nature Preserve
Arbor Hills Nature Preserve
Frisco Mountain Bike Trail
14. Most Walkable Neighborhoods
Deep Ellum
Bishop Arts
West Village
Uptown
Knox/Henderson
Lower Greenville
Downtown
15. Weather
Dallas is one of the hottest cities in the nation. Both from a humidity standpoint and temperature. Make sure to plan pool days in the summer, and take advantage of March, April, October, and November when the weather is perfect!
16. Construction
There’s a lot of it, and it’s mostly apartment complexes! https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2020/10/24/multifamily-dallas-apartment-construction-demand.html
17. Housing Market
Real Estate - https://www.realwealthnetwork.com/markets/dallas-texas/
18. Travel
DFW airport is one of the largest international airports in the country. The massive travel hub can get you just about anywhere, and the great part: most flights you can find direct.
Love Field is a much more convenient location for Dallasites looking to fly domestic or close to it. Right in the Medical District, it’s usually not much more than a 10 minute drive for anyone in the city.
There’s also a few great local vacation spots around the Metroplex you can drive to. Tons of lakes for the lake enthusiast, Austin is a 3 hour drive, along with Fredericksburg (Texas Wine Country) a convenient 4 hour drive. You can even go North to Oklahoma about an hour and a half away to hit Winstar or Choctaw, some of the biggest casinos in the world.
19. Businesses
There are truly hundreds of notable large companies headquartered in DFW, but here are the top 5:
(3) Exxon Mobil (Irving)
(7) McKesson (Irving)
(9) AT&T (Dallas)
(59) Energy Transfer Equity (Dallas)
(68) American Airlines Group (Ft. Worth)
20. Skyline/Views
Reunion Tower
St. Rocco’s Italian Food, Trinity Groves
Klyde Warren Park, for a unique view in the middle of Victory Park and Downtown
There’s roughly 100k people moving to DFW every 10-12 months because of our job market. This makes competition to find a home higher and higher, so make sure to get connected with one of our highly experienced Realtors to know WHEN to lease or buy to give you the most options!
